Day 5

May 14, 2010

Hong Kong remains interesting to say the least. We still haven't made it up to see the light show at the Peak, however, plan on doing that tonight after having dinner at the top. We went back to the Tsim Sha Tsui area for lunch and I was hassled by no less than at least 50 employees for various tailors offering me suits, shirts, pants, etc. It was funny to watch them leave John alone because he is Chinese and spot me out as a tourist and make a beeline right for me, although John did get offers as well--just not as many.

Just walking through the city is an experience in itself each time we go anywhere because the scents of restaurants, street food vendors, fish markets , and even some medicine shops are all very potent and can sometimes make your nose feel like it's being ambushed. Most of the city is tourist friendly and I have been able to speak English most places and have someone be able to help me or get someone that could.

Yesterday, we took the metro over to the Tung Chung area and rode some awesome cable cars up to see "The Big Buddha) . I realize I haven't written much since the first post but haven't had too much time to do so with everything going on. John is working in NY this summer and so he actually got a suit and about 15 shirts tailored at a place in the Central district for relatively cheap (definitely cheaper than it would be in America). We leave for Beijing on Sunday which is where the Kenan-Flagler Business School program "Doing Business in China" starts which is why I'm in China in the first place. I'm not too keen on the idea of having to go to class after just finishing up exams about a week ago in Chapel Hill, but I'm excited to see Beijing and hope that I don't have too much trouble getting by with my English in an area where it is much harder to find people who speak English, according to John.

Hopefully I'll be able to visit the Water Cube where Michael Phelps a.k.a. the Baltimore Bullet won 8 gold medals for America including one in a relay against the damn french (they don't get capitalization) with a former South Meck classmate of mine--Ricky Berens.

A picture from the first night:



More to come in the next couple of days...